10 Inspirational Books Recommended By Highly Successful People

I am often inspired by the life stories of really successful people. Some, like Oprah Winfrey, have come from pretty terrible circumstances.

Others, like Bill Gates, come from rather ordinary white American upbringings. Others are the children of immigrants, like Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy. One part of these individuals’ lives I have never quite considered is what books they read – what are their favorites, and have those books influenced them, inspired them, or simply entertained them?

Here are 10 books that are recommended by some current icons:

1.Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner

These two books provide new twists on the study of economics, pulling together seemingly unrelated phenomena and showing their relationships. In the first book, such chapters as “Why Drug Dealers Still Live with their Mothers,” describes the entire corporate structure of drug kingpins and the fact that the corner drug dealer would make more working at McDonald’s. The second book is just as “freaky,” with compelling chapter titles such as, “What do Prostitutes and Department Store Santa’s Have in Common?

“I really liked Freakonomics and I think SuperFreakonomics is even better. I recommend this book to anyone who reads nonfiction…one of my favorite things in the book is the debunking of many of the studies economists have done that they use as the basis for claiming that people are irrational in their choices….” – Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft)

2. Gulliver’s Travels by Johnathan Swift

Johnathan Swift was a satirical writer of the 18th century who criticized England, the self-righteousness of governments that rule over others because they are somehow more enlightened or morally correct (referring to England’s ruling over its colonies), and the foibles of human nature in general.

“To learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos (slaves in the book).” – Neil DeGrasse Tyson

3. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

This book proposes ways in which new startups can scientifically, more efficiently, and more rapidly test out their innovations, so that money and time are not wasted. As such, the methods proposed by Ries, are operational both in a college dorm room and in a corporate boardroom. Clearly, this is a book for today’s entrepreneur.

“If you want to read only one book on startups, you should choose The Lean Startup. It’s about one of the hottest startup theories today. Startup is all about testing your idea, hypotheses, and then finding their best combination. Like a science, not a casino.” – Dustin Moskovitz (Co-Founder of Facebook)

4. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore

According to Branson, he began reading the book while in the bathtub and was so absorbed and disturbed at the same time that he could not stop. Gore has made the case about climate change and man’s guilt in its cause, with data that really cannot be interpreted any other way.

Branson was so shaken by the book, and, specifically, the contributions of the transportation industry to the problem that he subsequently has pledged all of the profits from Virgin Airlines to clean energy efforts and has made it his mission to pressure other “dirty” industries to contribute as well.

5. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt

This book of lessons from the ancient has pearls of wisdom such as giving and serving are the way to happiness and that reaching toward a goal and not reaching it can be happiness too.

“This is probably the book that’s made the biggest impact on my life over the past five years. The author examines the beliefs about happiness of different cultures, religions and philosophers from different periods, and then compares those beliefs with research that’s been done on the science of happiness. The book is thought-provoking and the concepts can be applied to business and to life.” – Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos)

6. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

This is the story of Holden Caulfield, a teen who has been expelled from school and is in search of himself. The events and encounters he has are typical of a teen in the 1960’s, but are just as relevant today as then. This is also on the favorite list of Bill Gates.

“It’s very clever. It acknowledges that young people are a little confused but can be smart about things and see things that adults can’t. I’ve always loved it.” – Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft)

7. Running on Empty by Peter Peterson

Peterson writes a scathing condemnation of all politicians who are too concerned about their own political futures than to do the right things – fix the tax code; stop huge cuts and subsidies to corporations that don’t need or deserve, pass laws that will harm future generations, and fail to fix critical programs like Social Security and Medicare.

“Today, too many of our country’s key economic decisions are being made with an eye to the next election rather than to the next generation.” – Warren Buffet

8. The Power of Now by Eckert Tolle

Philosopher and “new age” spiritualist Tolle posits that time is an illusion and that there really is only “now” for any of us. But living in the moment does not mean that we are to be superficial “carpe diem” actors – we need to engage in “mindfulness,” to become one with the Universe through that mindfulness, and that will take us to the action we are meant to pursue. There is a lot of Zen Buddhism in this book, and Oprah Winfrey recommended it many times on her iconic TV show, having Tolle on as a guest several times.

9. Competing Against Time by George Stalk

The thesis of this work is that time is now added to the other three critical factors of competitiveness – money, productivity, and quality. In fact, says the author, because changes and innovations are occurring so rapidly, that time may indeed come to be the single most important factor in remaining competitive.

Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) is so enamored with this book, that he passes it out everywhere and recommends its reading to all new hires at Apple.

10. Life is What You Make It by Peter Buffet (Warren Buffet’s son)

This book is also on the favorites lists of Bill Clinton and Jamie Dimon. This book is autobiographical, of course, and through it, Buffett expounds on the wisdom he has accumulated from his family and his experiences. From his family, he learned that “everyone must find his own way in life.” He also challenges his readers – rather than take the way of least resistance, choose the path to greatest satisfaction.

“With home-spun, heart-felt wisdom Peter Buffet ponders how to make a meaningful life, while making a living. Life is What You Make It is thought-provoking, worthwhile reading.” – Ted Turner (Media Icon and Founder of CNN)

I hope you enjoyed my article! Which book is your favorite from this list?

Jonathan Emmen is a student and a passionate blogger from Copenhagen and regular contributor for different educational and entertainment blogs such a ProCustomWriting writing service and others. You can follow him on @JonnyEmmen or you can also follow him on Kinja.

4 Comments

Good List, and I second “The Power Of Now” and “Life is What You Make It”. Although slightly redudant, Tolle really hammers home the point that the present is where your mind should be truly focused. It’s of course important to remember where you came from and what’s ahead, but the only moment that matters is the present.

Also, was quite humbling reading about how Warrent Buffet came from a modest family but was driven to success (starting with small paper routes, all the way up to buying huge media companies).

The Power of Now by Tolle is by far the most important book on the list. It’s gone pretty mainstream but the message is very powerful. It’s the kind of book that finds it’s way into your life as soon as your ready for it.

Comfort Vs Courage: It’s Easier To Stay In Bed Than Face Your Goals.

On paper, your goals seem like a must. You want that successful business, you want to inspire others, you want to get on stage and wow the audience or you might even want to write a New York Times Best Selling Book.

Most of us do none of this. We set our goals like the ones mentioned and then consistently fall short.

Then there are the outliers who do achieve these audacious goals.

An example of an outlier I learned last week was a lady named Michaela Alexis. Like me, she’s crippled with a fear of public speaking. What inspired me was that recently she spoke in front of thousands of people.

The last time she tried this, she failed badly and forgot what she was going to say. The speech she gave was mostly a wash of F ups and an overwhelming sense of fear.

As Michaela faced the stage again, with Gary Vaynerchuk speaking after her, she was crippled by her fear. Despite her fear she went out on the stage and gave her talk to thousands of people.

She even filmed how nervous she was before the event. You can tell that as easy as she made it look, the behind the scenes showed the truth: she was scared out of her mind and full of fear.

On the day of her talk, she nearly stayed in bed and didn’t achieve her primary goal of becoming great at public speaking.

The choice is ours.

“We can either stay in bed where it’s comfortable, warm and there are no critics to judge us, or we can face the world and push beyond our limits”

Each of us has this same choice and most of us make the wrong one or we tell ourselves “I’ll start tomorrow.”

Tomorrow never comes. We keep dreaming about our goals but we rarely try to execute on them. Now I’m not saying we always hide from these big scary goals, but what I’ve experienced is we don’t execute on our goals enough.

Doing something like public speaking once a year or twice a year won’t crank up the dial enough on your results.

Michaela has shown that the fastest way to achieve our big goals is to be relentless. She’s done that by going on stage several times in a short-period.

Most of all, it takes courage.

“You stay in your warm bed and never execute because you lack courage”

We’re not born with courage though. We develop it.

Courage is a musclethat must be exercised every week. Doing the reps any less than a weekly commitment will see your vision, and ultimately your goals, become too far into the distance. To stay on the right track, you’ve got to gain leverage on yourself.

What I’ve learned is that courage is really nothing more than doing the small tasks that form part of your goals. In other words, courage is taking action without being attached to the result.

The moment you focus too hard on the result you’re trying to achieve, you get lost in your own thoughts. Gaining leverage on yourself and having courage starts with scheduling tasks in your calendar. Once something is locked in your calendar, you gain leverage on yourself.

None of us want to let others down and by putting things in your calendar, you make time for being courageous. The good news is you can always retreat to your bed if on the day of taking action you can’t proceed.

What I’ve found though is that you won’t. Once it’s locked in, there’s a very good chance you’re going to execute. Having things in your diary helps to activate your auto-pilot mode. The moment you can use autopilot mode when you require courage is when your circumstances start to change.

Rising up to the challenge.

After moments of courage, the progress you see towards your goals will make it all worth it. Seeing Michaela Alexis witness this firsthand, and sharing it on LinkedIn after her speech last week, made that very idea sink in.

The difference between staying in bed – your metaphorical comfort zone – and crushing your goals is rising up to the challenge in front of you. It’s looking the audience in the eye and telling them you got this. You were born to do this!

All of us get to face these challenges and many of us opt out. Rising up is about finding the hidden courage within yourself to take action when logically it doesn’t make sense.

It’s about using the nerves you’re feeling towards your advantage. It’s about taking your adversities and turning them into weapons of mass destruction.

Final Thought.

Seeing Michaela Alexis look physically sick, nervous, fearful and like she was about to die taught me so much. It’s not often that we get to lift the cover on someone like her who has so much influence, to see what actual courage looks like. The behind the scenes look at all the people you admire will show several similarities to Michaela.

Everything looks easy on video and what you don’t see is the courage that success takes. Each of us is burdened with our own flavor of challenges and overcoming them using courage is how we rise up, get what we want, and cross off those goals that give meaning to our lives.

Purpose, vision, entrepreneurship, personal development and anything else you can think of means nothing unless you have the courage to execute.

You can hide in the comfort of your bed or get out there and dance in front of dragons while the tree’s around you burn bright, and your mind is silenced from all the overthinking.

The choice is yours.

Will you choose courage or comfort?

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

This Is What You Should Do When Your Motivation Is Gone

We both know how life feels when you’re motivated, you feel unstoppable, like you can do anything and make anything happen. What makes you feel motivated when you start something isn’t always the same thing that will motivate you in the future. The problem is when people, who don’t read blogs like this, end up just accepting a lack of motivation as their reality and using it as their EXCUSE to avoid taking action and going after their destiny.

If following your destiny and fulfilling your purpose was easy, everyone would do it, however it takes a different type of person to pursue their destiny, a person that reads blogs like this…

This blog is for 2 types of people:

1. You are feeling motivated but want to make sure you keep the consistency of your results.

2. You are feeling a lack of motivation and you know that maintaining your drive will take your life to the next level.

The tools I’m going to share with you are what I have used to create an amazing relationship with my wife, build a 7 figure business, and transform my health, from being 60 lbs overweight to having abs for 8 years straight. Implementing these actions and habits into your life with cultivate success in your life without making you feel like you’re using all your will power, all the time. I believe commitment and motivation go hand in hand. Many people are motivated but they aren’t committed to their dreams, this is why they lack results. Take a Navy Seal for example, he can show up to day 1 of training super motivated, but what happens when he’s weeks deep into the most rigorous exercises?

Is it only the motivated ones that continue on or is it the ones who are committed?

You got it, the committed. But then what happens shortly after they graduate and get their trident?

The feeling of motivation comes back with a greater measure because they did it, they experienced that first taste of success as a result of their commitment. Motivation is a great tool. If we had to live being committed to our cause and purpose without motivation we wouldn’t have as much passion. Using these two tools together is how the most successful people experience the compounding effect of motivation. They make a decision when they are motivated and chose to stay committed to what their decision. Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do, long after the feeling has passed.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

Commitment is an unbreakable promise and choice you make, it is 100% up to you, whether you feel like it tomorrow or not. Commitment is giving the decisions you make today a long standing integrity, it’s relying on that commitment to withstand even when you want to take a break or feel overwhelmed, it’s pushing through.

Sometimes it’s going back into your past and seeing what worked before. You can use previous motivation as an anchor, pulling yourself back into that frame of mind at any time. Being able to control your emotions and mindset is a huge key to being successful.

It’s important to know what triggers your motivation and what it takes get you back into that state of mind. An example is similar to me when I go golfing, if I’m at the driving range practicing sometimes I will get lazy and my hits will get worse and worse. But when I go out on the course, when I know it counts, I feel myself get into the zone where I have a routine that I aim to execute.

I can access that “zone” on the range as well and anchor that feeling for whenever I need it. Remember when you felt motivated or full of energy, what can you do to bring back that feeling? How can you anchor yourself so that when you think of it, all your motivation comes back and pulls you into the zone?

You adapt to your environment

The #1 thing lacking for most people is in their environment. You will always adapt to your environment and you will always be a product of your five closest friends. Think about someone who gets into the gym every day. They workout because their actions and environment gives them the opportunity to be in changes of themselves. Now apply it to yourself, if you are in an environment without any pressure or opportunities, it’s very likely that will affect your motivation.

Look at the five people closest to you. What is their motivation level? What is their success level in health, business and relationships? It’s like a black hole sucking you in, it could be extremely positive or detrimental to your success. You are either dragging dead weight, an equivalent of the toxicity surrounding you or you’re being dragged and catapulted into success, prompted to pursue your destiny by the people who surround you.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Look at network marketing companies, they know that if they create local, regional, and national events they can place people in an environment to change and learn, and there are often enough events that the people showing up to all of them will stay consistent and make themselves and the company profitable.

What are some things you do when you’ve lost motivation? Comment below!

Embrace The Passion Of The Moment: Here’s How.

I’m sitting here on a Saturday afternoon thinking about my next career move. There are two companies I’m in love with and I’ve just had a spark of inspiration.

I’m dealing with a recruiter who knows both of them. Instead of waiting until Monday morning to send him a note about my passion for these two companies, I decided f*ck it; I’m going to embrace the passion I have right now.

Rather than write these words and not follow them myself, I decided to write a letter to the recruiter.

I told him “Person X should definitely have coffee with me.”

I laid out the ten reasons why I can transform their business and linked it back to my passion (blogging).

I ended the email with “Can you feel my passion and energy?”

How bad do you want it?

In these moments of passion, you have to ask yourself “How bad do you want it?”

Are you going to sit on your ass and do nothing or are you going to create opportunity?

My career is down the toilet and only I can fix this challenge. Blaming, crying and complaining will not fix the issue. The passion of the current moment that I get from time to time will.

The same is true for you. If you want something, you have to not only execute but deliver passion too. Think clearly about who can help you and then make the connection.

Don’t be selfish either.

Passion is great but if you use it to fulfill your own selfish desires, then you’ll also fail. In my email, to the recruiter, I told him to tell the two prospective companies that I will give them my advice and strategy for free even if they don’t decide to hire me.

I put it all on the line and backed up my claims and promises with evidence.

“Coming from a place of humbleness and being open to giving stuff away for free is how you show people you care”

Combine this hack with passion, and you have a powerful cocktail of whoop ass that can help you reach your goals – mine is changing my career.

People are attracted to your passion and it’s what sells.

Every entrepreneur I have met who has nailed a pitch has used passion. They’ve made the audience feel instead of trying to inform them.

We make decisions based on emotion, not logic (you know this already) and so when you use passion, you speak to the one thing they’re looking for but are never going to tell you: emotion.

When I feel someone’s passion, I get goosebumps down my spine and I almost always say yes when this happens.

Let’s add fear.

When you lay it all on the line, you’ll often get a sharp dose of fear. This fear can be combined with passion to achieve almost any result. For example, when I do public speaking, I’m almost always a bit nervous. Fear helps give me energy and then I use passion to deliver my message.

By using mostly passion to speak in front of an audience, I don’t need to think too much about notes because my passions (like social media) are engrained in my memory.

Fear is like a strong dose of coffee for me and it makes me alert to the audiences needs and the way they feel.

The single biggest hack.

If you’re having a moment of passion like I just did, then you must use it.

“Moments of passion are typically followed by deep states of “flow” and so you can deliver big results during this time without too much effort”

Moments of passion should never be ignored. Stop everything when you get one and use audio, video or words to capture the message. I’ve recently suffered a few issues with memory thanks to my evil friend mercury which has been discovered in my blood at very high levels.

Because my memory sucks, I’ve been forced to write things down and take action right away otherwise I forget whatever it is that I was going to do.

This may seem like a weakness – not for long as I’m cleaning out the mercury right now – but it’s actually one of my superpowers.

A trigger for a moment of passion is when you get pissed off. For example, if you go to the supermarket today and you’re pissed off by all the products that are loaded with sugar, use your passion to do something about it or capture your thoughts.

Many people find me inspiring and I believe that’s because I capture passion, bottle it up, and deliver it to your phone or computer via blog posts. All I am really doing is capturing moments of passion. I’m looking for things in my internal and external world that will help you.

The number one thing I’m trying to do is use my passion to help you take action. I want you to execute above everything else on your big goals.

Final thought.

I have no idea whether this email to the recruiter will work. Maybe he will read it and think “Geez this Tim guy is so lame. Who’d write such a ridiculous email and actually hit send?”

The thing is I don’t care and you shouldn’t either. Some people are going to get your passion and others are going to think you’re nuts. The ones that think you’re nuts were never going to help you anyway so all you have done is self-select the people that CAN help.

I’m over caring what people think and I’m never going to hide my passion. I hid my passion for years and that got me nowhere. Start swinging the axe at the tree and don’t worry if you miss.

Fingers crossed that this email translates otherwise at least I’ve got a cool story to tell, right?

Hell yeah, amigo!

Embrace your passion right now!

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

I live in a country where there is endless opportunity, no war, hardly any violence, beautiful beaches and really healthy food.

Sometimes we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and realize what we have instead of being lost in thoughts of what we don’t have.

Let’s use my own situation to analyze what I have. I have:

– Some really good storytelling skills
– Great insight into social media
– Excellent sales skills
– A history of successful entrepreneurship
– An income generating side business
– Some evolving public speaking skills
– Phenomenal health

Now think about your own situation. When you think long and hard, what do you have?

We are actually very lucky.

Yes, you’ve heard it before but I’m going to say it again. The odds of you being born are massively not in your favor. Here’s the fact from my friend Google:

“The probability of you existing at all comes out to 1 in 10 2,685,000”

Just by being born you are already lucky. There’s no need to feel sorry for yourself because you’ve already won.

When you go through a rough time like I am with my career right now, the way you maintain your mindset is realizing how lucky you are.

All of us are already lucky and by remembering that in the tough times, it gives us the energy to stop ourselves from giving it all up and throwing in the towel.

During moments of chaos, you must remember how lucky you already are.

Someone may not see your talent but that doesn’t mean you’re not lucky.

That’s what I am telling myself today. People in my career right now are not seeing my real talent but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any or that I’m not lucky to be alive.

Sometimes the reality is the opposite of what you think. Sometimes the fact someone can’t see your talent has more to do with their weaknesses. Maybe that person who doesn’t believe in you is just very average and hasn’t developed any greatness of their own (yet).

Rejection often has nothing to do with you at all.

That’s why right now I’m not personally having a bar of it. I encourage you to say the following lines to yourself:

“I can be extraordinary regardless of outside opinions.”
“I will not let rejection blind me from my true talents.”
“Everything happens for a reason and this moment will appear lucky later on.”

The concept of luck.

My idea of luck is pretty extreme. I believe that the more good you do and the more you help others, the luckier you get. Becoming lucky has nothing to do with luck at all.

You can generate perceived luck by following this formula.

You can’t even start though unless you begin to see you’re lucky first.

“That’s because scarcity blinds you from the abundance that each of us has access to”

Put things into perspective.

Things could be tough right now but they could be even worse. That very idea should cheer you up right now.

There are highs and lows in our career and unless you can embrace both sides of this reality, you’ll get lost in a negative reality that forces you to think you’re not already lucky.

I’m guilty of that too – especially today.

What we must remember is so cliché: we have air in our lungs and are alive. This means we are already luckier than most things that exist in the universe.

Focus on how you can get to where you want to go rather than being lost in what you’re lacking. By doing this, you’ll realize how lucky you have it.

The job loss, divorce, sickness, startup failure – whatever – will serve you so much more when you realize how lucky you are with or without those challenges.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

Trying to Build Charisma? Pay Attention to How You Speak

Have you ever listened to yourself talking and said how on earth do I sound that terrible? Most of us don`t realize they have voice issues until we accidentally listen to our voice or seek professional help. But the truth is, 38 percent of your charisma comes from the way you talk.(more…)

Marwan Jamal is a fitness and health blogger at healthline.com. He’s a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym, and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

4 Comments

Good List, and I second “The Power Of Now” and “Life is What You Make It”. Although slightly redudant, Tolle really hammers home the point that the present is where your mind should be truly focused. It’s of course important to remember where you came from and what’s ahead, but the only moment that matters is the present.

Also, was quite humbling reading about how Warrent Buffet came from a modest family but was driven to success (starting with small paper routes, all the way up to buying huge media companies).

The Power of Now by Tolle is by far the most important book on the list. It’s gone pretty mainstream but the message is very powerful. It’s the kind of book that finds it’s way into your life as soon as your ready for it.

Comfort Vs Courage: It’s Easier To Stay In Bed Than Face Your Goals.

On paper, your goals seem like a must. You want that successful business, you want to inspire others, you want to get on stage and wow the audience or you might even want to write a New York Times Best Selling Book.

Most of us do none of this. We set our goals like the ones mentioned and then consistently fall short.

Then there are the outliers who do achieve these audacious goals.

An example of an outlier I learned last week was a lady named Michaela Alexis. Like me, she’s crippled with a fear of public speaking. What inspired me was that recently she spoke in front of thousands of people.

The last time she tried this, she failed badly and forgot what she was going to say. The speech she gave was mostly a wash of F ups and an overwhelming sense of fear.

As Michaela faced the stage again, with Gary Vaynerchuk speaking after her, she was crippled by her fear. Despite her fear she went out on the stage and gave her talk to thousands of people.

She even filmed how nervous she was before the event. You can tell that as easy as she made it look, the behind the scenes showed the truth: she was scared out of her mind and full of fear.

On the day of her talk, she nearly stayed in bed and didn’t achieve her primary goal of becoming great at public speaking.

The choice is ours.

“We can either stay in bed where it’s comfortable, warm and there are no critics to judge us, or we can face the world and push beyond our limits”

Each of us has this same choice and most of us make the wrong one or we tell ourselves “I’ll start tomorrow.”

Tomorrow never comes. We keep dreaming about our goals but we rarely try to execute on them. Now I’m not saying we always hide from these big scary goals, but what I’ve experienced is we don’t execute on our goals enough.

Doing something like public speaking once a year or twice a year won’t crank up the dial enough on your results.

Michaela has shown that the fastest way to achieve our big goals is to be relentless. She’s done that by going on stage several times in a short-period.

Most of all, it takes courage.

“You stay in your warm bed and never execute because you lack courage”

We’re not born with courage though. We develop it.

Courage is a musclethat must be exercised every week. Doing the reps any less than a weekly commitment will see your vision, and ultimately your goals, become too far into the distance. To stay on the right track, you’ve got to gain leverage on yourself.

What I’ve learned is that courage is really nothing more than doing the small tasks that form part of your goals. In other words, courage is taking action without being attached to the result.

The moment you focus too hard on the result you’re trying to achieve, you get lost in your own thoughts. Gaining leverage on yourself and having courage starts with scheduling tasks in your calendar. Once something is locked in your calendar, you gain leverage on yourself.

None of us want to let others down and by putting things in your calendar, you make time for being courageous. The good news is you can always retreat to your bed if on the day of taking action you can’t proceed.

What I’ve found though is that you won’t. Once it’s locked in, there’s a very good chance you’re going to execute. Having things in your diary helps to activate your auto-pilot mode. The moment you can use autopilot mode when you require courage is when your circumstances start to change.

Rising up to the challenge.

After moments of courage, the progress you see towards your goals will make it all worth it. Seeing Michaela Alexis witness this firsthand, and sharing it on LinkedIn after her speech last week, made that very idea sink in.

The difference between staying in bed – your metaphorical comfort zone – and crushing your goals is rising up to the challenge in front of you. It’s looking the audience in the eye and telling them you got this. You were born to do this!

All of us get to face these challenges and many of us opt out. Rising up is about finding the hidden courage within yourself to take action when logically it doesn’t make sense.

It’s about using the nerves you’re feeling towards your advantage. It’s about taking your adversities and turning them into weapons of mass destruction.

Final Thought.

Seeing Michaela Alexis look physically sick, nervous, fearful and like she was about to die taught me so much. It’s not often that we get to lift the cover on someone like her who has so much influence, to see what actual courage looks like. The behind the scenes look at all the people you admire will show several similarities to Michaela.

Everything looks easy on video and what you don’t see is the courage that success takes. Each of us is burdened with our own flavor of challenges and overcoming them using courage is how we rise up, get what we want, and cross off those goals that give meaning to our lives.

Purpose, vision, entrepreneurship, personal development and anything else you can think of means nothing unless you have the courage to execute.

You can hide in the comfort of your bed or get out there and dance in front of dragons while the tree’s around you burn bright, and your mind is silenced from all the overthinking.

The choice is yours.

Will you choose courage or comfort?

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

This Is What You Should Do When Your Motivation Is Gone

We both know how life feels when you’re motivated, you feel unstoppable, like you can do anything and make anything happen. What makes you feel motivated when you start something isn’t always the same thing that will motivate you in the future. The problem is when people, who don’t read blogs like this, end up just accepting a lack of motivation as their reality and using it as their EXCUSE to avoid taking action and going after their destiny.

If following your destiny and fulfilling your purpose was easy, everyone would do it, however it takes a different type of person to pursue their destiny, a person that reads blogs like this…

This blog is for 2 types of people:

1. You are feeling motivated but want to make sure you keep the consistency of your results.

2. You are feeling a lack of motivation and you know that maintaining your drive will take your life to the next level.

The tools I’m going to share with you are what I have used to create an amazing relationship with my wife, build a 7 figure business, and transform my health, from being 60 lbs overweight to having abs for 8 years straight. Implementing these actions and habits into your life with cultivate success in your life without making you feel like you’re using all your will power, all the time. I believe commitment and motivation go hand in hand. Many people are motivated but they aren’t committed to their dreams, this is why they lack results. Take a Navy Seal for example, he can show up to day 1 of training super motivated, but what happens when he’s weeks deep into the most rigorous exercises?

Is it only the motivated ones that continue on or is it the ones who are committed?

You got it, the committed. But then what happens shortly after they graduate and get their trident?

The feeling of motivation comes back with a greater measure because they did it, they experienced that first taste of success as a result of their commitment. Motivation is a great tool. If we had to live being committed to our cause and purpose without motivation we wouldn’t have as much passion. Using these two tools together is how the most successful people experience the compounding effect of motivation. They make a decision when they are motivated and chose to stay committed to what their decision. Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do, long after the feeling has passed.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

Commitment is an unbreakable promise and choice you make, it is 100% up to you, whether you feel like it tomorrow or not. Commitment is giving the decisions you make today a long standing integrity, it’s relying on that commitment to withstand even when you want to take a break or feel overwhelmed, it’s pushing through.

Sometimes it’s going back into your past and seeing what worked before. You can use previous motivation as an anchor, pulling yourself back into that frame of mind at any time. Being able to control your emotions and mindset is a huge key to being successful.

It’s important to know what triggers your motivation and what it takes get you back into that state of mind. An example is similar to me when I go golfing, if I’m at the driving range practicing sometimes I will get lazy and my hits will get worse and worse. But when I go out on the course, when I know it counts, I feel myself get into the zone where I have a routine that I aim to execute.

I can access that “zone” on the range as well and anchor that feeling for whenever I need it. Remember when you felt motivated or full of energy, what can you do to bring back that feeling? How can you anchor yourself so that when you think of it, all your motivation comes back and pulls you into the zone?

You adapt to your environment

The #1 thing lacking for most people is in their environment. You will always adapt to your environment and you will always be a product of your five closest friends. Think about someone who gets into the gym every day. They workout because their actions and environment gives them the opportunity to be in changes of themselves. Now apply it to yourself, if you are in an environment without any pressure or opportunities, it’s very likely that will affect your motivation.

Look at the five people closest to you. What is their motivation level? What is their success level in health, business and relationships? It’s like a black hole sucking you in, it could be extremely positive or detrimental to your success. You are either dragging dead weight, an equivalent of the toxicity surrounding you or you’re being dragged and catapulted into success, prompted to pursue your destiny by the people who surround you.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Look at network marketing companies, they know that if they create local, regional, and national events they can place people in an environment to change and learn, and there are often enough events that the people showing up to all of them will stay consistent and make themselves and the company profitable.

What are some things you do when you’ve lost motivation? Comment below!

Embrace The Passion Of The Moment: Here’s How.

I’m sitting here on a Saturday afternoon thinking about my next career move. There are two companies I’m in love with and I’ve just had a spark of inspiration.

I’m dealing with a recruiter who knows both of them. Instead of waiting until Monday morning to send him a note about my passion for these two companies, I decided f*ck it; I’m going to embrace the passion I have right now.

Rather than write these words and not follow them myself, I decided to write a letter to the recruiter.

I told him “Person X should definitely have coffee with me.”

I laid out the ten reasons why I can transform their business and linked it back to my passion (blogging).

I ended the email with “Can you feel my passion and energy?”

How bad do you want it?

In these moments of passion, you have to ask yourself “How bad do you want it?”

Are you going to sit on your ass and do nothing or are you going to create opportunity?

My career is down the toilet and only I can fix this challenge. Blaming, crying and complaining will not fix the issue. The passion of the current moment that I get from time to time will.

The same is true for you. If you want something, you have to not only execute but deliver passion too. Think clearly about who can help you and then make the connection.

Don’t be selfish either.

Passion is great but if you use it to fulfill your own selfish desires, then you’ll also fail. In my email, to the recruiter, I told him to tell the two prospective companies that I will give them my advice and strategy for free even if they don’t decide to hire me.

I put it all on the line and backed up my claims and promises with evidence.

“Coming from a place of humbleness and being open to giving stuff away for free is how you show people you care”

Combine this hack with passion, and you have a powerful cocktail of whoop ass that can help you reach your goals – mine is changing my career.

People are attracted to your passion and it’s what sells.

Every entrepreneur I have met who has nailed a pitch has used passion. They’ve made the audience feel instead of trying to inform them.

We make decisions based on emotion, not logic (you know this already) and so when you use passion, you speak to the one thing they’re looking for but are never going to tell you: emotion.

When I feel someone’s passion, I get goosebumps down my spine and I almost always say yes when this happens.

Let’s add fear.

When you lay it all on the line, you’ll often get a sharp dose of fear. This fear can be combined with passion to achieve almost any result. For example, when I do public speaking, I’m almost always a bit nervous. Fear helps give me energy and then I use passion to deliver my message.

By using mostly passion to speak in front of an audience, I don’t need to think too much about notes because my passions (like social media) are engrained in my memory.

Fear is like a strong dose of coffee for me and it makes me alert to the audiences needs and the way they feel.

The single biggest hack.

If you’re having a moment of passion like I just did, then you must use it.

“Moments of passion are typically followed by deep states of “flow” and so you can deliver big results during this time without too much effort”

Moments of passion should never be ignored. Stop everything when you get one and use audio, video or words to capture the message. I’ve recently suffered a few issues with memory thanks to my evil friend mercury which has been discovered in my blood at very high levels.

Because my memory sucks, I’ve been forced to write things down and take action right away otherwise I forget whatever it is that I was going to do.

This may seem like a weakness – not for long as I’m cleaning out the mercury right now – but it’s actually one of my superpowers.

A trigger for a moment of passion is when you get pissed off. For example, if you go to the supermarket today and you’re pissed off by all the products that are loaded with sugar, use your passion to do something about it or capture your thoughts.

Many people find me inspiring and I believe that’s because I capture passion, bottle it up, and deliver it to your phone or computer via blog posts. All I am really doing is capturing moments of passion. I’m looking for things in my internal and external world that will help you.

The number one thing I’m trying to do is use my passion to help you take action. I want you to execute above everything else on your big goals.

Final thought.

I have no idea whether this email to the recruiter will work. Maybe he will read it and think “Geez this Tim guy is so lame. Who’d write such a ridiculous email and actually hit send?”

The thing is I don’t care and you shouldn’t either. Some people are going to get your passion and others are going to think you’re nuts. The ones that think you’re nuts were never going to help you anyway so all you have done is self-select the people that CAN help.

I’m over caring what people think and I’m never going to hide my passion. I hid my passion for years and that got me nowhere. Start swinging the axe at the tree and don’t worry if you miss.

Fingers crossed that this email translates otherwise at least I’ve got a cool story to tell, right?

Hell yeah, amigo!

Embrace your passion right now!

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

I live in a country where there is endless opportunity, no war, hardly any violence, beautiful beaches and really healthy food.

Sometimes we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and realize what we have instead of being lost in thoughts of what we don’t have.

Let’s use my own situation to analyze what I have. I have:

– Some really good storytelling skills
– Great insight into social media
– Excellent sales skills
– A history of successful entrepreneurship
– An income generating side business
– Some evolving public speaking skills
– Phenomenal health

Now think about your own situation. When you think long and hard, what do you have?

We are actually very lucky.

Yes, you’ve heard it before but I’m going to say it again. The odds of you being born are massively not in your favor. Here’s the fact from my friend Google:

“The probability of you existing at all comes out to 1 in 10 2,685,000”

Just by being born you are already lucky. There’s no need to feel sorry for yourself because you’ve already won.

When you go through a rough time like I am with my career right now, the way you maintain your mindset is realizing how lucky you are.

All of us are already lucky and by remembering that in the tough times, it gives us the energy to stop ourselves from giving it all up and throwing in the towel.

During moments of chaos, you must remember how lucky you already are.

Someone may not see your talent but that doesn’t mean you’re not lucky.

That’s what I am telling myself today. People in my career right now are not seeing my real talent but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any or that I’m not lucky to be alive.

Sometimes the reality is the opposite of what you think. Sometimes the fact someone can’t see your talent has more to do with their weaknesses. Maybe that person who doesn’t believe in you is just very average and hasn’t developed any greatness of their own (yet).

Rejection often has nothing to do with you at all.

That’s why right now I’m not personally having a bar of it. I encourage you to say the following lines to yourself:

“I can be extraordinary regardless of outside opinions.”
“I will not let rejection blind me from my true talents.”
“Everything happens for a reason and this moment will appear lucky later on.”

The concept of luck.

My idea of luck is pretty extreme. I believe that the more good you do and the more you help others, the luckier you get. Becoming lucky has nothing to do with luck at all.

You can generate perceived luck by following this formula.

You can’t even start though unless you begin to see you’re lucky first.

“That’s because scarcity blinds you from the abundance that each of us has access to”

Put things into perspective.

Things could be tough right now but they could be even worse. That very idea should cheer you up right now.

There are highs and lows in our career and unless you can embrace both sides of this reality, you’ll get lost in a negative reality that forces you to think you’re not already lucky.

I’m guilty of that too – especially today.

What we must remember is so cliché: we have air in our lungs and are alive. This means we are already luckier than most things that exist in the universe.

Focus on how you can get to where you want to go rather than being lost in what you’re lacking. By doing this, you’ll realize how lucky you have it.

The job loss, divorce, sickness, startup failure – whatever – will serve you so much more when you realize how lucky you are with or without those challenges.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net